Into The Dark
by tFantasyFan
Summary: It was dark, and it was hot. Or maybe he was wrong; maybe it was freezing and he couldn’t see the light for some reason. It didn’t really matter. None of it did.


_I got really tired and then bored, and then this was born. Sort of a drabble. Almost. It's less than a thousand, okay? _

_Disclaimer: Disclaimed. Opening and closing lyrics hail from "I Will Follow You Into the Dark," by Death Cab For Cutie._

* * *

_Love of mine, someday you will die  
But I'll be close behind  
I'll follow you into the dark._

_No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white  
Just our hands clasped so tight  
Waiting for the hint of a spark  
If heaven and hell decide  
That they both are satisfied  
Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs_

It was dark, and it was hot.

Or maybe he was wrong; maybe it was freezing and he couldn't see the light for some reason. It didn't really matter. None of it did. Because the body was sitting next to him, hollow, a brief cracking of bone and days of waiting. There was something _there. _He'd felt it creep across his chest, thin and flexible and eerily alive, before it seemed to decide that an empty vessel was much more fun to play puppets with.

And Zoro did nothing to prevent it. And it made him feel guilty.

"_Zoro-kun, I think I'm dying." _

"You're not him. He's already dead." This statement seemed to bring out a competitive edge in the body, and he found himself straddled by oddly angled legs.

"_I'm scared." _Once upon a time, he could have believed it without question. But this voice wasn't his. It was nothing. Empty. The body wasn't afraid.

He was silent. Arms jerkily descended upon his shoulders, a forehead was pressed to his collarbone and it fit naturally like it always had, but none of it was right. Flesh was cold and stiff, deteriorating muscles shifted, something long and thin crawling beneath them- while these arms held him, hands were dangling limply at the wrist. It was nothing. Meant nothing.

There was nothing to it but the cradling arms of death.

"_Will you protect me, Zo. Ro. Kun?"_

It was a choice then, he saw, or at least it traveled under the guise of one. Protect, kill, abandon. He swallowed thickly and it burned his throat. His own arm curled around the body, spread fingers through the clumped and matted hair and became tangled in the strands.

Even if it didn't count, it still felt suiting.

If he tried, he could still remember promising to do it. Gentle words, worthless now. "I would have." _Always_.

The thin limbs wrapped around him shifted, arms dropping down to hang by the body's sides as though they'd been forgotten temporarily. _"You shouldn't __**lie**__, Zoro-kun," _it muttered. _"Liars…go to hell."_

On the inside he cringed. On the outside, his grip only tightened. He lowered his face to the mass of curls- they were slightly damp and smelled of sulfur, of blood and rot. When he freed his fingers in order to tilt the head upwards, it came out of the scalp in little sticky clumps. They hit the ground with sickening squelches.

The room was dark, and they might not have even been there, but he still sought to meet the eyes nestled in the body's skull. "No hell is worse than this," he stated matter-of-factly. "…and if it's true about liars, then I'll go. Maybe I'll find him there."

"_You could stay here with me."_ The palm that pressed against his face was marred by half-curled fingers and caked dirt, awkward. So different from the way it had been, once- thin, quick, gentle, talented.

Death was still strong in his senses, invading every perception. The body wasn't _him. _He shook his head.

Fingers jerked, traveled downwards; a chin raised and rested on his shoulder while the body rocked forward. _"This is what you want, right?"_

"No. Not from you."

The movements ceased abruptly and then words were being strangled out of the body's vocal chords, torturing him mercilessly. "Don't…you want me, Zoro?"

He squeezed his eyes shut. "Stop it."

"Don't you…love me?"

"I…I don't."

"…Zoro…" There were lips at his ear but they didn't move properly with the words. He relied on that fact to remind him of the situation at hand. "I feel safe…now..."

"Stop." _Please. _He wouldn't beg. It…this wasn't…He wouldn't _beg. _

"Will you stay?"

It was his punishment for failure. He hadn't kept his promise and this was what it got him. He cleared his throat to speak, but no answer ever came.

_You and me have seen everything to see  
From Bangkok to Calgary  
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down  
The time for sleep is now  
It's nothing to cry about  
Cause we'll hold each other soon  
The blackest of rooms_

___If there's no one beside you  
When your soul embarks  
Then I'll follow you into the dark._

* * *

_As you can see, the strangeness was strong with me._


End file.
